After Eight Mints no longer vegan! >:(

[Evilfluffbunny]

I'm so annoyed! I was given a box of After Eight's mint chocolates for xmas and I ate a few of them without bothering to check the ingredients (since they've been vegan for years and were listed in the Animal Free Shopper and everything). I had to check the ingredients for a relative who has allergies though and I discovered that they've added butter oil to them!

I just thought I'd better warn any other chocoholics on the list who haven't realised....

[michaelhobson]

I'm so annoyed! I was given a box of After Eight's mint chocolates for xmas and I ate a few of them without bothering to check the ingredients (since they've been vegan for years and were listed in the Animal Free Shopper and everything). I had to check the ingredients for a relative who has allergies though and I discovered that they've added butter oil to them!

I just thought I'd better warn any other chocoholics on the list who haven't realised....

I know how you feel. I was disappointed when Hershey's decided to add Milk Fat to their dark chocolate. What the !@#$!

Oh well, there is plenty of good vegan chocolate these days. I prefer it as dark as possible, 70% cocoa solids is good and Fair Trade if it's available.

My favorite dark chocolate has 20% of the usrda for iron per serving. Now I can claim to eat chocolate for health reasons

[Evilfluffbunny]

Now I can claim to eat chocolate for health reasons

Well as far I'm concerned:

Chocolate = cocoa beans

Beans = Vegetable

Therefore, chocolate is a vegetable

[Rochellita]

Funny chocolate story coming up. When I first became veggie (not vegan yet) I had no idea about nutrition, so I bought this locally written (as in written in South Africa) book on vegetarianism. It included chocolate on the list of recommended foods to eat daily because of the high iron content! Really it did! It was from a reputable publishing company as well! So for about a year, I ate chocolate daily thinking it was part of the vegetarian food groups!!!!

[Jonathan]

aren't after eight mints nestle anyway? ethically i don't feel that they have any right to my limited money if they feel that they are so hard strapped for cash that they have to sue the Ethiopian government.

jonathan

[Evilfluffbunny]

i don't feel that they have any right to my limited money if they feel that they are so hard strapped for cash that they have to sue the Ethiopian government.

What's that all about?! The chocolates are made by Nestle (which I also didn't realise until checking the ingredients). All I've heard about Nestle is that they were selling powdered milk to Third World countries and trying to convince them that it's a healthier alternative to breast milk - I could have my facts wrong though. I also heard that Nestle are linked to some other major animal testing company (Unilever possibly, or the company that makes L'Oreal make-up).

That's something that REALLY annoys me - you can buy a seemingly innocent product with no idea of what other things the company is involved in.

[Jez]

And whats the nutritive value of an after eight mint exactly? Sorry just doesn't bother me really.

[Evilfluffbunny]

It bothers me because I like chocolate and I'm fed up with the amount of companies who add animal ingredients to previously vegan products. I realise this is a fitness forum but it's also a vegan one and I figured the topic might be of interest to some people.

[Rochellita]

For those who miss the After Eight mints, try these

http://www.viva.org.uk/shop/chocolate.htm- Viva Mint Rounds (bottom of pge)

and these

http://www.veganstore.co.uk/holy_cow_dinner_choc.html

[Daniel]

For you living in North America a great vegan chocolate company is Chocolate Decadence. Here are some factoids from their Web site:

Chocolate...

*Has more Anti-Oxidants than red wine or green tea

*Makes the platelets in the blood less sticky, thereby contributing to heart health

*Has more Iron than beef liver

*Is the 2nd highest sourceof Magnesium among all foods (only seaweed has more)

*Is one of the highestsources of Phosphorus

*Does not cause acne

*Researchers have found that a minimum of 1 oz. per day can have significant health benefits

*Nutritionists and Doctors agree that the rule of thumb is that the darker it is, the better it is for you

*Chocolate Decadence is all dark chocolate

[Evilfluffbunny]

That was very interesting Daniel - even less reason to feel guilty now!

For those of you in the UK, Co-op do vegan 'After Dinner, plain chocolate peppermint cremes' which are very tasty.

[Mary]

There are tonnes of vegan chocolates about - and because they are higher in coco content than milk chocolates they satisfy your craving quicker, which is cool. Try Green and Blacks, though not all of them are vegan. Their cherry chocolate is gorgeous...

Elizabeth Shaw has two vegan chocolates out at the moment, and you can get them from most supermarkets. (The chocs are minty and orange respectively, and look almost like chocolate pennies, which is why we get them for Séamus. And me, come to that...)

[Dave Noisy]

Bah..why buy chocolates when you can make your own!

I've recently figured out how to make 'Turtles' chocolates, and they were a tremendous hit at my Hell-o-day X-Mess Din Dins with Dave potluck/party, celebrating the birth of the unholy Baby Jeebus.

I'm gonna make some more tomorrow, i'll not the proportions i use for everything and make a recipe for them. They're actually quite easy. =)

Marzipan is a breeze as well...maybe i should give 'caramilk' a go..hehe

[vegechic]

is there any vegan choclate in normal sweet shops i heard frys peppermint cream are but i have never tried?

[fredrikw]

the after eight that is sold in Sweden is still vegan. still nestle though